Construction, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Tourism, Transport

Photo: meyerturku.com

CEO of Tallink Group Janek Stalmeister said that the speedboat will introduce a new era to Tallink's ship traffic, as it is environment-friendly and the entire vessel will be built according to Tallink's special requirements.

“With the new Tallink fast ferry we are taking the next step in the technical development of the LNG ferries – all tailored to the specific needs of our customer. For the Turku yard, this order boosts our production volume in 2016 by 30% above the 2015 level”, states Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku Oy.

The vessel will operate on the Tallinn-Helsinki route, under the name Tallink Shuttle.

The vessel will cost nearly 230 million euros, and Tallink will finance building the new ship with a long-term loan of 184 million from Nordea Bank, with a guarantee from the Finnish exports agency Finnvera. The vessel will be ready in early 2017.

The new ferry will be approximately 212 metres in length with a gross tonnage of 49 000. The ship will operate on the route between Helsinki and Tallinn and she is designed for carrying 2800 passengers. The service speed is 27 knots. The ship will be delivered from Meyer Turku in the beginning of 2017. The project gives approximately 2000 person-years of employment for the shipyard and the supplier network.

The new environmentally friendly ship uses LNG as fuel and she will comply with the new and stricter emission regulations for the ECA areas including the Baltic Sea. The highly innovative hull form minimizes the hydrodynamic flow resistance, which together with other innovative solutions will bring significant improvement in energy efficiency. Efficient and fast cargo turnaround in ports has been taken into account in the design of the new generation fast ferry.